Detective Inspector Coreen Marshall testified on Thursday that accused Travis McDougall was picked out during an identification parade by the widow of businessman Ashok Raghoo, who said he was the person who shot and killed her husband and wounded her in the process.
McDougall is on trial for the murder before Justice Navindra Singh and a jury at the High Court in Georgetown.
The allegation against him is that on August 18th, 2014, he murdered Raghoo during an alleged robbery on Vlissengen Road.
Marshall told the court that McDougall was pointed out by the wife of the deceased during an identification parade two days after the attack.
Marshall said that after viewing the parade for about five minutes, the woman requested that McDougall, who was standing third in a line of seven other men, step closer to the one-way glass.
She said the woman then asked for the accused to face a western direction.
After all this was done, Marshall said that Raghoo’s wife identified McDougall as the one who attacked and shot them.
Thereafter, Marshall said McDougall was informed that he had been identified by a witness, and he responded, “Is not me.”
Testifying also was pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh, who gave the cause of death as perforation of the lungs due to gunshot injuries.
The doctor said that after two hours of searching Ashok’s body, he was unable to find the bullet by which he was struck. He asserted that it had to have been lodged in the man’s body, since he found no exit wounds.
Dr. Singh said that the dead man’s liver sustained multiple contusions, from which he would not have lived longer than half an hour after the shooting.
The court is currently conducting a voir dire, which will continue on Monday morning.
The accused is being represented by attorney Nigel Hughes.
In her opening address to the jury at the commencement of the trial, Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy had said that Raghoo and his wife had left their home to transact business in the city.
She said they were driving along Vlissengen Road and had stopped at the intersection with Regent Street at the traffic light, when they were both shot and relieved of their belongings.
They were rushed to the hospital, where Raghoo succumbed to his injuries.
Police say the couple was robbed of a firearm, a quantity of cash and cellphones, all totaling $4M in total value.
